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Break Free from the Vicious Cycle of Undermanagement

By Bruce Tulgan Managers who are convinced they don’t have time to manage almost always spend lots of time managing people anyway. That’s because whenever a manager avoids spending time up front making sure things go right, then things almost always go wrong. Small problems pile up and grow until they become so big…

Seven Key Aspects of Management With Which Managers Are Struggling

By Bruce Tulgan It’s always been hard to manage people. Managers have always been stuck in the middle between the employer and the employee, trying to negotiate their competing needs and expectations. But today, managers are telling us that it is harder than ever before. And it is resulting in an ongoing epidemic of…

Managing People Is Getting Harder

By Bruce Tulgan Undermanagement can be difficult to identify. After all, everyone at work is surrounded by metrics and meetings all the time. It may seem like management is ever-present. But what is missing in most workplaces is the human element of management: managers providing direct reports with the guidance, direction, support and coaching…

Supporting Employees Means Customizing Your Management Approach

By Bruce Tulgan All your employees come to work with different levels of ability and skill: different backgrounds, personalities, styles, ways of communicating, work habits, and motivations. Some of them need more guidance than others. One employee needs the details spelled out, while another has the details memorized. One responds best if you ask…

Leaders and Managers: Don’t Be Afraid to Solve Small Problems!

By Bruce Tulgan Nobody likes confrontations, especially when it’s a confrontation with an employee you manage. Difficult conversations only seem to make things worse, resulting in hurt feelings or maybe even broken trust. Sometimes, if a resolution can’t be found, you even have to fire the employee in question. And that means yet another,…

Trying to Hold Your Employees Accountable? You Have to Make It a Process, Not a Slogan

By Bruce Tulgan Accountability is a hot watchword in just about every business. But what does it really mean? Simply put, accountability means having to answer for one’s actions. When business leaders chant the slogan of “accountability,” what they are trying to do is spread the following message to employees: behave knowing in advance…

Help! How Do I Increase Employee Productivity?

By Bruce Tulgan If an employee doesn’t get “enough” work done, then there are only three logical possibilities: that employee needs to work either more, faster, or both. Simple, right? Just keep that employee in their chair and keep a fire lit under it. But it’s rarely quite so simple. Here’s what usually happens:…

Become a Great Delegator: Ask the Right Questions When Handing Off Work

By Bruce Tulgan Micromanagement, when it occurs, is usually the result of an anxious manager who wants to make sure that everything is getting done the right way, at every step of the way, by overseeing the project from start to finish. The thing is, managers should make sure that everything is getting done…

The Fundamentals Are All You Need

By Bruce Tulgan Managers today are under a lot of pressure. The bar keeps being raised. They are responsible for more and more employees. More of the people they manage are working in areas of expertise that the manager doesn’t know much about, or maybe knows almost nothing about. Managing people is getting harder,…

The Value of Leadership Training

By Bruce Tulgan Leaders in organizations of every shape and size can probably list a number of ways their businesses could improve. Employees do their jobs the wrong way. There is too much firefighting and not enough work getting done. Low performers are hiding out under the radar. High performers are thinking about leaving….